1973. Hours after a mysterious phone call is made to the police, a train pulls into Sunderland station with a dead body on board.

Cause of death: strangulation.

Victim: unknown. Witnesses: none.

Undeterred by this baffling set of circumstances, newly promoted Police Sergeant Aline James vows to crack the case and prove her critics wrong. But when her famously ruthless investigation tactics yield no results, she is forced to seek help from two unlikely allies: unassuming assassin John Brown and calamitous actor Tony Davies.

As bodies pile up, can this unusual trio thwart a devilishly complex plot, before one of them, actually, becomes a corpse?